Skype Translator to Offer Star Trek-Level Real-Time Audio Translation

The Re/Code Code Conference kicked off last night in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, where Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stage to discuss his company and a few new features his team is working on. One is from the Skype team, and it’s called Skype Translate. It may change the way we communicate around the world later this year.

Skype Translate provides real-time audio translations. So someone might greet you on Skype in German and you’ll hear the English translation immediately. The Skype team is working with the Microsoft Translator team on the technology, which has been in developed for more than a decade, Microsoft said. “It is early days for this technology, but the Star Trek vision for a Universal Translator isn’t a galaxy away, and its potential is every bit as exciting as those Star Trek examples,” Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Skype Gurdeep Pall said.

In fact, it’s coming this year. Gurdeep said that a beta version of Skype Translator will launch for Windows 8 by the end of this year. You can check out a quick video of Skype Translator in action below.